AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 94, 21 August 1915, Page 7

AMUSEMENTS.

j. C. WILLIAMSON’S DRAMATIC COMPANY. “THE MAN WHO STAYED AT HOME. ” After J. C. Williamson, Ltd., had paid a record price lor the Australasian rights of “The Ma.u Who Stayed at Home,” which is to be staged for the first and only time hero at the Town Hall on Saturday night next, the management had then to scour England, America and Australia for suitable artists to interpret the special types of character created by the authors of the new spy drama. A start was made by procuring at a very high salary Miss Violet Paget for the role of Miriam Leigh, and critics have declared that never previously has this talented actress received greater opportunities to display her dramatic genius than in the scene in which she, unwittingly, comprises her confederate secret service agent, Christopher Brent. Mr Frank Harvey has achieved an electrical triumph as Christopher Brent, the man who stayed at home. At one minute he depicts a brainless fop, with hardly sufficient energy to got out of his own way, toying for effect with monocle, and embellishing his speech with ‘hlontcherknows” and '•“eh whats” of the orthodox Bond Street style, but the next minute he is the quick wittcd, shrewd, calculating secret service agent, it is said he shows admirable restraint when ho is presented with the white feather, and a true sense of earnestness when his fiancee presses him to tell why ho has not enlisted. That extremely popular gud brilliant character actor, Mr Leslie Victor, is, at his best as Fritz, a German waiter, and so is Miss Emma Temple as Mrs Sanderson. The part of Carl Sanderson will introduce us to Mr Austin Milroy, one of England’s foremost dramatic artists. Mr Arthur Cornell will take tho role of John Preston, J.P., and Miss Dorothy Cummings, late of the Julius Knight Co., will appear as Molly Preston. The cast also includes Mr Kenneth Brampton, Miss Temple Pigott, Miss M. Browne, and Mr Charles 'Morse. Some lovely frocks are worn by Miss Paget and Miss Dorothy Cummings during tho progress of the drama. The staging is a special feature of the production. The box plan will he opened at Grubb’s on Thursday morning next, at 8 o’clock.